Bioshock Infinite - the $200 million 6 hour literally on rails interactive movie with guns thread

[DemonKing]

I'm a bit late to the party with this one, only having started last night.

Overall I'm enjoying the world-building and art design, but consolitis is definitely there with the low-res textures and annoyingly cloned NPCs (seriously the guy in the bowler hat has more clones than Episode 2). I was actually close to going to bed after the first hour or so of roaming about but once the fighting starts and you get introduced to new vigors the game actually starts to improve a bit (so far). I still hate the stupid audio-recordings left lying around but it looks promising so far albeit extremely linear.

 

[DalekFlay]

You said it about Oblivion's rooftops in its cities. That the cultural influences and lore is subtly implemented, because, look, this roof tiles are slightly different colour, thus it's totally a dunmer city by culture. And kept defending this retarded idea.

Oh you're one of those NOTHING POSITIVE CAN BE SAID ABOUT BAD GAMES people, I forgot.

Yes, I like how Oblivion and Skyrim have their border areas show a little culture from neighboring areas, even if the execution is bad sometimes. Heaven forbid I say something positive about a generally poor game.

 

[Jasede]

I can't stand the over-saturated colors and I find myself nitpicking something every damn second I watch my friend play this. The gunplay looks wonky as hell on the Move, too. I'd never play this. I haven't even touched Bioshock.

I will say this though: every time I nitpick something while I watch this game, I am reminded of how much better that thing was handled in System Shock 2. /nostalgiagoggles

Just one example:
80% of the gameplay is scavenging. This was a lot more fun in SS2 due to the respawning enemies and the dense atmosphere. Also, finding things felt a lot more rewarding because you weren't presented health every goddamn second (friend is playing on hard).

 

[sea]

Just one example:
80% of the gameplay is scavenging. This was a lot more fun in SS2 due to the respawning enemies and the dense atmosphere. Also, finding things felt a lot more rewarding because you weren't presented health every goddamn second (friend is playing on hard).

All of the BioShock games would be 300x better if you had significantly more limited resources, which would actually force you to use your powers and the environment in the ways the developers intended you to... instead of just knocking people on the head with the wrench over and over because someone decided it'd be a good idea to make the starter melee weapon one of the most useful and cost-effective weapons in the entire game.

 

[Jaesun]

These are "mass accessible" games. What are you expecting?

 

[Crooked Bee]

I don't wanna play this, but is there a good reliable summary of the plot somewhere? I'd like to see what the fuss is about (without having to suffer through a 12 hour long youtube LP).

 

[ohWOW]

Yes, I like how Oblivion and Skyrim have their border areas show a little culture from neighboring areas, even if the execution is bad sometimes. Heaven forbid I say something positive about a generally poor game.

See? You like shit, and you defed it in aspects they cannot be defended. This explains why you like Bioshock so much.

 

[ohWOW]

I don't wanna play this, but is there a good reliable summary of the plot somewhere?

You travel in time, call multiverse stuff: apparently people in alternate universes build mostly rocket turrets in the middle of the enemy position in our world, also freight hooks. In the end it's deep, because story is bullshit with a twist every five minutes, you die in the end killed by an army of Elizabeths, which is deep, because she's your daughter... and she's not your daughter.
You will love it if you're dalekflay.

 

[Cyberarmy]

I don't wanna play this, but is there a good reliable summary of the plot somewhere? I'd like to see what the fuss is about (without having to suffer through a 12 hour long youtube LP).

Wiki always helps;

http://bioshock.wikia.com/wiki/BioShock_Infinite

Or this one for summary;

http://img801.imageshack.us/img801/8953/imagethumbnail2aspx.jpg

 

[sea]

The thing that bugs the shit out of me is actually not so much the very, very end. It's the fact that the game has a much, much better plot twist that takes place immediately before yet is basically just a red herring/pointless footnote.

Spoiler

Obviously I am talking about Elizabeth being shown as responsible for the invasion of the surface world. At that point and after talking to Comstock, I was fully expecting the twist to be that by trying to save Elizabeth from Comstock you inadvertently ended up causing her to become everything she didn't want to be, a tyrant and a continuance of her "father." That would have been nice. Unexpected, a clever subversion of typical game stories, and then maybe you could even do a Braid-like thing where the end has you playing as weak old Comstock against Booker with all his pimped-oiut guns and powers.

Except it turns out that Comstock is just your evil twin with a beard, and then the game goes batshit insane with the multiple universe stuff by inexplicably turning Elizabeth into The One from The Matrix in the span of about 5 seconds. Why do I get the distinct sense they pulled this out of their ass at the last minute and that it was never intended to be there from the start?

And don't get me started about how ending Booker's life by drowning him at his baptism makes no goddamn sense anyway, because then why can't you just enter an alternate universe where Elizabeth didn't travel back in time to drown Booker? Since every possibility that could happen does happen, for every Elizabeth that drowned Booker there was an Elizabeth who didn't. So basically, the pointlessly convoluted nature of the story coupled with the ill-defined rules of how multiple realities work invalidates the entire plot. Except the game attempts a pat, poignant ending which is in direct conflict of everything it shows you.

 

[ohWOW]

The thing that bugs the shit out of me, is they actually went for "sky invasion" scenes on almost-modern nuclear US, which should've fucked the city up. Instead, sky ships are firing cannons at skyscrapers.

 

[Tagaziel]

All of the BioShock games would be 300x better if you had significantly more limited resources, which would actually force you to use your powers and the environment in the ways the developers intended you to... instead of just knocking people on the head with the wrench over and over because someone decided it'd be a good idea to make the starter melee weapon one of the most useful and cost-effective weapons in the entire game.

You forget the GODLY WRENCH OF THE PLUMBING GOD +9 in System Shock 2.

But yes, the gameplay was stupidly dumbed down from SS2 to BS1. All BioShock games would've benefitted from retaining the inventory management, armors, gear repair, and more specialization. I think the worst thing is that they made the tonics swappable, removing consequences and making the player stick to a particular build. That's what I loved about SchutzStaffel Zwei.

I can't stand the over-saturated colors and I find myself nitpicking something every damn second I watch my friend play this. The gunplay looks wonky as hell on the Move, too. I'd never play this. I haven't even touched Bioshock.

I will say this though: every time I nitpick something while I watch this game, I am reminded of how much better that thing was handled in System Shock 2. /nostalgiagoggles

Hey Jas, WHY DO YOU NOT RETURN MY PMs.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

http://steamcommunity.com/stats/BioShockInfinite/achievements/

Scroll to the bottom. IT'S HAPPENING!
(sooner than i expected)

 

[DalekFlay]

Yes, I like how Oblivion and Skyrim have their border areas show a little culture from neighboring areas, even if the execution is bad sometimes. Heaven forbid I say something positive about a generally poor game.

See? You like shit, and you defed it in aspects they cannot be defended. This explains why you like Bioshock so much.

You're tiresome.

 

[ohWOW]

I'm right.

 

[Jasede]

Hey Jas, WHY DO YOU NOT RETURN MY PMs.

'cause I didn't get any!!

 

[sea]

Okay. A few more things.

Spoiler

1. So the Lutece twins were responsible for both Comstock and DeWitt being brought to Columbia, right? So who built Columbia in the first place? I was under the impression it was Comstock. So if Comstock wasn't supposed t exist in Columbia in the first place then how and why did the Luteces bring him there, if it never existed?
2. Is it is just me or is the "your brain comes up with new memories to replace the old ones" explanation a really, really thinly-veiled and forced way of covering up the fact that if Booker remembered who he was then the entire story would have never happened to begin with? Wait, is there any logical basis or explanation for why this happens, or is it "just because"?
3. Why did Elizabeth drown Booker and have him make a choice that would wipe both him, Comstock and herself out, without telling him in advance? She had to have known as soon as she could "see past all the doors." Is she just an asshole like that?
4. Remember the dead body in the lighthouse you see at the very beginning of the game, with a bag over its head? What is the significance of that? At the very end of the game I was expecting to walk in the lighthouse, have Booker sit down in the chair and then have Elizabeth shoot him, and then Booker realizes all along he was supposed to be dead, or... something. So was this just a big dropped plot thread?

This is why you don't make a story that hinges on time travel and infinite dimensions theory. As soon as you spend one second thinking about it, the entire thing falls apart.

 

[cvv]

This is why you don't make a story that hinges on time travel and infinite dimensions theory. As soon as you spend one second thinking about it, the entire thing falls apart.

 

[Angthoron]

Okay. A few more things.

Spoiler

1. So the Lutece twins were responsible for both Comstock and DeWitt being brought to Columbia, right? So who built Columbia in the first place? I was under the impression it was Comstock. So if Comstock wasn't supposed t exist in Columbia in the first place then how and why did the Luteces bring him there, if it never existed?
2. Is it is just me or is the "your brain comes up with new memories to replace the old ones" explanation a really, really thinly-veiled and forced way of covering up the fact that if Booker remembered who he was then the entire story would have never happened to begin with? Wait, is there any logical basis or explanation for why this happens, or is it "just because"?
3. Why did Elizabeth drown Booker and have him make a choice that would wipe both him, Comstock and herself out, without telling him in advance? She had to have known as soon as she could "see past all the doors." Is she just an asshole like that?
4. Remember the dead body in the lighthouse you see at the very beginning of the game, with a bag over its head? What is the significance of that? At the very end of the game I was expecting to walk in the lighthouse, have Booker sit down in the chair and then have Elizabeth shoot him, and then Booker realizes all along he was supposed to be dead, or... something. So was this just a big dropped plot thread?

This is why you don't make a story that hinges on time travel and infinite dimensions theory. As soon as you spend one second thinking about it, the entire thing falls apart.

Actually, the whole thing makes little sense because

Spoiler

Shouldn't they have to kill the original Booker before he gets a child in the first place, thus destroying all possibilities of any of it ever happening, a-la Terminator time travel plots? What does killing a time-travel Booker accomplish? It's like John Connor at the age of 93 would travel to the past and then die there at the time of events of T2. That affects nothing. Or does the time-travel Booker absorb all the Bookers from other universes when he steps into them? If so, how the hell does that work, and shouldn't that universe's "original" Booker eat the intruding one instead? How does any of this make any sense?

I mean, sure, there's suspension of disbelief and sci-fi "because it's sci-fi" stuff, but then there are just plain flaws in logic like that. Unless this is explained, but if it is, then how is it explained to make sense?

 

[sea]

Actually, the whole thing makes little sense because

Spoiler

Shouldn't they have to kill the original Booker before he gets a child in the first place, thus destroying all possibilities of any of it ever happening, a-la Terminator time travel plots? What does killing a time-travel Booker accomplish? It's like John Connor at the age of 93 would travel to the past and then die there at the time of events of T2. That affects nothing. Or does the time-travel Booker absorb all the Bookers from other universes when he steps into them? If so, how the hell does that work, and shouldn't that universe's "original" Booker eat the intruding one instead? How does any of this make any sense?

I mean, sure, there's suspension of disbelief and sci-fi "because it's sci-fi" stuff, but then there are just plain flaws in logic like that. Unless this is explained, but if it is, then how is it explained to make sense?

But...

Spoiler

Since we're talking infinite universes that split off for every action that does or doesn't happen, aka everything that can possibly happen does happen, doesn't that just mean that there has to be an Elizabeth who doesn't kill Booker no matter what?

I guess the rules of infinite dimensions and time travel are flexible like that. They're whatever the plot needs them to be!

 

[Angthoron]

Actually, the whole thing makes little sense because

Spoiler

Shouldn't they have to kill the original Booker before he gets a child in the first place, thus destroying all possibilities of any of it ever happening, a-la Terminator time travel plots? What does killing a time-travel Booker accomplish? It's like John Connor at the age of 93 would travel to the past and then die there at the time of events of T2. That affects nothing. Or does the time-travel Booker absorb all the Bookers from other universes when he steps into them? If so, how the hell does that work, and shouldn't that universe's "original" Booker eat the intruding one instead? How does any of this make any sense?

I mean, sure, there's suspension of disbelief and sci-fi "because it's sci-fi" stuff, but then there are just plain flaws in logic like that. Unless this is explained, but if it is, then how is it explained to make sense?

But...

Spoiler

Since we're talking infinite universes that split off for every action that does or doesn't happen, aka everything that can possibly happen does happen, doesn't that just mean that there has to be an Elizabeth who doesn't kill Booker no matter what?

I guess the rules of infinite dimensions and time travel are flexible like that. They're whatever the plot needs them to be!

Yes and no. I recall that in better sci-fi involving time travel that I've read, there are catalyst events, prevention/modification of which affects timeline/timelines enough to become primary. Of course, if BSI timelines are literally infinite, then the whole plot of the game is essentially as pointless as a dream sequence because, well, it never happened and never affected anything.

 

[retardation]

Well, I finished this game and the story strikes me as surprisingly and strongly anti-zionist. We can expect an attempt at discrediting the Infinite's story in the mainstream media. As a matter of fact I think the campaign has already started:

http://www.abc.net.au/arts/stories/s3733057.htm
http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/04/11/spoilers-the-8-stupidest-things-in-bioshock-infinite
http://www.computerandvideogames.co...inite-is-horrendous-claims-indie-dev-but-why/

As for the shooting and level layout part, it's great. It reminds me of Quake 2 for some reason, which is always a good thing. That is, if you like shooters. If not, well...

 

[ohWOW]

As for the shooting and level layout part, it's great. It reminds me of Quake 2 for some reason

 

[Jaesun]

Brian Fargo ‏@BrianFargo3m
I have almost completed Bioshock and will no longer have to hear my wife complain "You're obsessed with that game!" @IGLevine

 

[ohWOW]

His wife is Levine.